Well, you’re right that it’s effort. Having a Freezer Cooking Day is hard work. It takes thought, planning and sweat to pull it off.

But I have definitely found it to be every bit worth it. In fact, it’s hard for me to imagine life without pre-made meals in my freezer!

As many have stated before, Freezer Cooking definitely saves you time and money. But here are three other specific reasons I love Freezer Cooking:

1. I only have to do dishes once a month.

Okay, well, I wash plates, bowls, cups and utensils, but my kitchen only becomes massively messy once a month. Do you know how nice that is?

When I have a clean kitchen, it somehow feels like the whole house is cleaner. So while I definitely pretty much “destroy” the kitchen on Freezer Cooking Day, the other 29-30 days of the month, it stays relatively mess-free.

(Ahem. We won’t talk about the kitchen floor, though. Can I exempt it since I have young children? Because seriously, no matter how many times I sweep and mop each week, there always seems to be enough crumbs on the kitchen floor to make a casserole with! :))

Nope, I don’t have a deep freeze, so I just do the stuff-and-cram method for my over-the-refrigerator freezer. It might not be the prettiest method ever, but I can fit close to 30 meals in there at a time! And yes, I’m sure the organizational geeks are totally cringing at that picture. It works for us — and that’s what matters!

2. I don’t have to dread 5 p.m. anymore.

I don’t know about you, but there are some days at our home when life whizzes by so quickly and all of a sudden, it’s 5 p.m. and dinner isn’t even a figment of my imagination. Before I started regularly cooking ahead and freezing meals, I’d be tempted to call my husband and ask him to bring something home for dinner.

Freezer cooking has solved the 5 p.m. “What’s-For-Dinner” panic. If I forget to pull something out earlier in the day, I’ll just pick a meal from my freezer stash which defrosts quickly — such as meatballs. I pair this with from frozen veggies, toast and maybe a fruit salad and no one even has to know I forgot about dinner until 30 minutes before it was supposed to happen!

3. It’s not a huge undertaking to have dinner guests or take a meal to someone.

When I have meals already made in the freezer, it’s rather simple to bring food to a new mom or have friends over for dinner.

Lasagna, spaghetti pie and meatballs are great staple meals to have on hand to share with others. Just whip up some Bread Machine Buttery Rolls, make a salad or fruit and maybe some brownies and you’re set!

I also like to sometimes make up chocolate chip cookie dough and freeze it so I can quickly make a dessert for friends coming over or to take somewhere.

66 Comments

I have yet to embark on a freezer cooking day, but since I am on maternity leave and will return to work June 7, I thought it might be a good idea to try it for my first month back at work. I work 3 days a week and was going to cook 15 dinners, which would be enough for my work nights. I don’t mind cooking on my off-days, and I usually eat left-over dinner for lunch, cereal on the weekdays, and my husband sometimes makes pancakes, waffles or eggs on the weekends. We could make the pancakes and waffles ahead and freeze them, but since we cook them on the weekends, I don’t mind making them fresh.

I’m a little overwhelmed by all of this planning. Shopping my pantry, making a list of meals and then a shopping list seems manageable (once upon a time I planned meals every week before making a grocery list); what is scary to me is making the prep list. Since I do use some convenience foods (I rarely use dried beans and buy the cans, and I don’t make pizza dough from scratch I buy it pre-made) maybe I can get by without a prep list? I’m sure I could save a lot of money eliminating some convenience items, but the thought of sorting and soaking beans just doesn’t sit well with me for some reason. I will muddle my way through trial and error I guess.

One idea I have that may work for people like me, is on some nights I will double a dinner recipe, make half for dinner fresh and freeze the other half. I just did this yesterday with my black bean burgers, which is one of my regular dinners. For those who wish to start small, maybe on a weekend night, making a double dinner and freezing the rest for another night is a way to gradually build a stockpile of freezer dinners. I would only suggest freezing the other half before serving dinner, because if your family (ahem husband – my kids are only 3 and 2 months) is like mine, if you put more food in front of them they might just eat more.

You don’t have to bust your budget to feed your family! Enter Grocery University: a 2 hour, 19 minute audio course that will teach you everything you need to know about making the most of your grocery budget, regardless of whether you’re new to bargain shopping or have been a super-shopper for years.

You don’t have to bust your budget to feed your family! Enter Grocery University: a 2 hour, 19 minute audio course that will teach you everything you need to know about making the most of your grocery budget, regardless of whether you’re new to bargain shopping or have been a super-shopper for years.